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The author is a consultant and human rights trainer, specializing in negotiation, interethnic dialogue and peacebuilding with international organizations. She holds a PhD in Intercultural studies, with a major on ‘Children, Politics and Ideology’. She is currently conducting a postdoctoral research on youth-led nation-building approaches in conflict-affected settings. Dr. Drosopulos has nine (9) working languages, including Turkish and Russian.
ISTANBUL
In three questions, Mary Drosopulos points out the children that have disappeared since the start of the Ukraine-Russia war.
Amid active hostilities and frustration, assessing the exact number of children lost during the war is impossible. According to recent figures (02.06.2023) provided by official Ukrainian sources, updated on a daily basis, ever since the outbreak of war until today, 19,505 children have been deported to Russia [1]. Out of these, only 371 have been returned, while 392 children are considered missing. To help locate missing children, the Ukrainian government has set up a website called "Children of War".
Based on findings of research [2] conducted by the Yale School of Public Health together with the Conflict Observatory [3], published last February, at least 6,000 children from Ukraine ages 4 months to 17 years have been held at camps or other facilities across Russia and Russia-occupied Crimea since the start of the war on February 24, 2022. As per evidence provided in the report [4], these camps have been promoting the political re-education of Ukrainian minors and specifically, their ‘russification’ through military and patriotic training depicting Russia as the absolute "Motherland." [5]
Rumors about Ukrainian minors being kept in Russia by force had first emerged last spring: In March 19, 2022, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry claimed that Russian forces had abducted 2,389 children from the Luhansk and Donetsk regions [6].
As per information provided via the European Parliamentary Research Service [7], several categories of "lost" children have been identified. Some are orphans or members of poor families, that have been forcibly displaced from state institutions; others had been separated from their relatives during the “filtration” process [8], while there is also the case of children who had been sent to summer camps in various parts of Russia (often with parental consent) to escape witnessing atrocities, yet were not returned after their stipulated period of stay. In January 2023, Resolution 2482 of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) called for "an immediate halt to the forced deportation and transfer of Ukrainian civilians, including children, to Russia and their safe return to Ukraine" [9].
The Kremlin claims to be acting for humanitarian reasons, saving children from danger and hardship [10]; the Kyiv speaks of genocide [11]. The issue of Ukraine’s lost children has taken on symbolic connotations for both sides, which have been justifying their narrative in terms of identity, nationhood and dominance.
Two weeks after the outbreak of war, Maria Lvova-Belova, Putin’s Commissioner for Children’s Rights had reported during an official meeting that 1090 children, identified by Russia as orphans, had been rescued from state care institutions in the Donbas region and had arrived in Russia where "big-hearted" citizens were lining up to receive them [12]. Belova would soon turn into a key figure in this controversial story, portrayed by the local media as an "angelic" figure and "savior" of Ukrainian children. To her Western critics, she would respond by projecting the purity of her motives, justified, in her view, by the fact that she herself is a mother of 23 children, including a fostered child from Mariupol.
In May 2022, Putin modified Russia's legal framework to fast-track and simplify the process for granting Russian passports and citizenship to Ukrainian children who were, allegedly, without parental care [13]. A couple of months later, in mid-July, Ukrainian children were pictured on the social media holding Russian documents during a naturalization ceremony, with Belova commenting publicly on how happy children looked after becoming Russian citizens [14].
The West has strongly condemned Russia’s practices. International humanitarian organizations, such as UNHCR, UN, UNICEF and civil societies worldwide have voiced strong concerns and condemned Russia for its actions.
On June 1, on the occasion of the International Day for Protection of Children, diplomatic missions in Ukraine made a joint statement where they expressed their appalment "by Russia’s large-scale forced transfer and deportation of children to Russia or Russian-controlled territory within Ukraine" and strongly urged the Russian Federation "to return Ukraine’s children to Ukraine" [15].
On March 17, 2023, Pre-Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants against Putin and Belova for the war crime of the alleged deportation of children [16]. This action resulted in several missing children returning to their families at the end of the same month. The number of returnees has not been specified, but it is said to be small compared to the overall volume of children still missing [17].
It is worth clarifying that, neither Russia nor Ukraine are ICC members. In practical terms, ICC lacks jurisdiction over these two territories, however, Russia’s prosecution has a highly symbolic value: The issuing of warrants intends to communicate a strong message that no one is immune and that "the world is watching".
The international community has been discussing the establishment of a special tribunal for the crime of aggression, as this would be the only way for Russian leaders to be held accountable. The Gordon Brown initiative [18] is indicative of such intentions, yet consensus among international actions is yet to be reached.
International support has also been expressed in the form of generous amounts of financial assistance, a part of which is granted to civil society organisations caring for children. ‘Save Ukraine’ [19], the only public organisation in the country that regularly designs and conducts missions to repatriate children, is supported by American funds [20]. The organisation is also a frontrunner in documenting missing children’s cases, which it files to local and international courts. The United States is the largest single country donor of humanitarian aid in Ukraine, having provided more than $688 million through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) ever since the eruption of war [21].
To understand the cost of lost children to different stakeholders, one should go back to similar practices documented: The "disappeared children of Argentina" seized by the junta or "Spain's lost babies of Francoism" are only some tragic cases in recent global history, where minors have been used as "trophies" of war. Abducted children can end up as victims of illegal adoptions, but also sexual exploitation or organ trafficking.
It should be noted than an international mobilization of such magnitude has not been witnessed in previous crises recorded in recent history involving children, as in the case, for instance, of the lost children of Syria. Geopolitical implications continue having an impact on international community’s approach. In August, 29, 2022, at her briefing to the Security Council on the humanitarian situation in Syria [22], assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, Joyce Msuya had emphasized that ‘irreversible damage is being caused to the lives of Syrian civilians due to chronic under-funding of the international effort’ and had warned that if the international community does not act immediately, then a whole generation of Syrian children ‘might be lost’ [23].
[1] https://childrenofwar.gov.ua/en/
[2] https://hub.conflictobservatory.org/portal/apps/sites/#/home/pages/children-camps-1
[3] https://ysph.yale.edu/news-article/yale-joins-conflict-observatory-documenting-ukraine-war-crimes/
[4] https://hub.conflictobservatory.org/portal/sharing/rest/content/items/97f919ccfe524d31a241b53ca44076b8/data
[5] https://hub.conflictobservatory.org/portal/sharing/rest/content/items/97f919ccfe524d31a241b53ca44076b8/data
[6] https://www.9news.com.au/world/russia-ukraine-update-russia-accused-of-kidnapping-thousands-of-children/8a2c964f-a829-4f42-869c-681c4df98507
[7] https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2023/747093/EPRS_BRI(2023)747093_EN.pdf
[8] https://www.gov.pl/web/special-services/special-services-have-identified-russian-filtration-camps
[9] https://pace.coe.int/pdf/af950f18903d947bda73c9e0a7689a2f41e9128cd2da8bd1bc2211277e4e666a/res.%202482.pdf
[10] https://iz.ru/1441845/kseniia-nabatkina/oni-boiatsia-gromkikh-zvukov-perezhivaiut-za-svoe-budushchee
[11] https://www.kmu.gov.ua/en/news/zaiava-mzs-ukrainy-do-mizhnarodnoho-dnia-pamiati-zhertv-zlochynu-henotsydu-vshanuvannia-ikhnoi-hidnosti-ta-poperedzhennia-tsoho-zlochynu
[12] http://kremlin.ru/events/president/news/67949
[13] http://deti.gov.ru/articles/news/deti-iz-dnr-nachali-poluchat-grazhdanstvo-rossii-v-uproshennom-poryadke
[14] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V138M3W7ft4
[15] https://www.gov.uk/government/news/joint-statement-on-deportation-of-ukrainian-children-by-russia
[16] https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/situation-ukraine-icc-judges-issue-arrest-warrants-against-vladimir-vladimirovich-putin-and
[17] https://missingchildreneurope.eu/ukraine/
[18] https://gordonandsarahbrown.com/2022/03/calling-for-the-creation-of-a-special-tribunal-for-the-punishment-of-the-crime-of-aggression-against-ukraine/
[19] https://saveukraineua.org/
[20] https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/25/us/politics/ukraine-missing-children.html
[21] https://www.usaid.gov/news-information/press-release/united-states-announces-additional-humanitarian-assistance-ukraine#:~:text=The%20United%20States%2C%20through%20the%20U.S.%20Agency%20for,that%20has%20triggered%20staggering%20displacement%20and%20humanitarian%20need.
[22] https://reliefweb.int/report/syrian-arab-republic/assistant-secretary-general-humanitarian-affairs-and-deputy-emergency-relief-coordinator-ms-joyce-msuya-briefing-security-council-humanitarian-situation-syria-29-august-2022
[23] https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/08/1125702
*Opinions expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Anadolu.
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